


Something to Keep Fighting For

by orphan_account



Category: Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017)
Genre: Captain loves his sidekicks, For a Friend, I let Jackie come up with the title...because I had no idea honestly XD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 09:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13901355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “Help!”It’s the only thing I can register, for everything else has gone dark. There is a stagnant stillness that would have frightened me if I had the strength to feel anything except exhausted.And I am so exhausted.---(Captain, while he's knocked out in the radioactive goop)





	Something to Keep Fighting For

**Author's Note:**

> JackieSugarskulls did me a solid favor, so as a friend, this is my return to her.  
> She basically wanted Captain as he shakes off his stupor while in the Turbo Toilet 2000 bowl full of radioactive goop. You know- when he gets his powers.  
> I also... had no idea what to title it, so she titled this.
> 
> Hope you enjoy! Cheers!

       _“Help!”_

 

      It’s the only thing I can register, for everything else has gone dark. There is a stagnant stillness that would have frightened me if I had the strength to feel anything except exhausted.

      And I am so exhausted.

      Too tired to feel the pain I should be feeling, too tired to fear.

      To breathe.

      Let me rest here, in this soft silence. Let me just-

 

     _“Help us!”_

 

      I just want a moment of rest- just one- as I float in this nothing, though the edges of this void are becoming crisper the longer I wait. The end comes closer, the periphery of the emptiness shrinking.

      And there is a burning.  

      In my skin.

      In my chest.

      There is a burning, soft and low.

      Had I the energy, perhaps, I would be frightened by that, too.

      But I am so tired...and so defeated.

      It’s not a sadness, it’s something less, something smaller and heavier in my heart.

 

      _“Help!”_

 

      I was not made to be a hero, no. I was not built for this sort of living. I chose it because… because… but that slips from me too, now. Maybe it had something to do with- no- I can’t- it’s gone, dissipating into the shadows.

      It doesn’t matter now, anyway, not with everything being so soft, so safe, so dark and still. The fight is over. It doesn’t matter who won.

      I just wanted to help.

      That was all I wanted to do- I wanted to help. I might not remember why but that- that stays.           
      That clings.

      I curl in towards that thought. It feels warm.

      Familiar.

      Like there is a hearth in my chest, like the idea is somehow home.

      I wanted to help.

      I tried so hard. I may not have been very good at it, but I did try.

 

   _“Help!”_  

 

      I know those voices.

      Though the dark snaps apart, the edges of that ever-encroaching void snap tighter still as I try to breathe and

      The

      BURN

      In my skin in my eyes in my chest my chest my lungs the burn get it out get it off- my boys- where are my boys- where are-

      But the moment of panic is gone

      Because everything else...is gone

      The pain, so present it had been visceral, suddenly dissipates as quickly as it came, without rhyme or reason or trace, and through the haze of green I feel coming to me, welling within me, an energy I did not know I still had.

      (Though I should have guessed. Heroes never die, now do they.)

      But still, my heart pounds.

 

      _“Captain Underpants, help!”_

 

      And there is a moment of worry, a moment- just one- but in the tingling of my toes, my fingertips- there is a logical click that they seem to experience before my brain can catch up. They know- they know better than I do, so I let them tell the rest of me what they must.

      My boys-

      Up. I go up. I cannot say how, but up I think, taking direction from my fingers and my toes, and suddenly, up I go, until I am hovering above the scene and looking down. There they are, my sidekicks, their bright and smiling faces looking up at me- to me- and I find the burning that had once ached suddenly flairs bright within me, the hearth roaring.

      I was not built to be a hero, no, but that doesn’t matter now. Heroes aren’t built anyway. They’re made of their own volition. And I- I made me, because of moments like this. I made me be this, and I will continue to be this, because regardless of anything else, I can at least throw my all into the fight and hope luck is on my side.

      I choose to do the right thing, because if nobody else can, or will, I know I will.

      And that is the best help I can give.

      That is the only help I can give.

      So I will be brave, and give.

      And give

      And keep trying.


End file.
